El Nombre

El Nombre is an animated masked Mexican gerbil originally from a series of educational television shows called Numbertime - a BBC schools programme about mathematics. His first appearance was in 1993 and he became such a success that his interstitial part was soon extended to a five minute short (also named El Nombre), produced by Ealing Animations. In 2000, an entertainment series was commissioned for CBBC and a second series went out in 2003.

El Nombre is set in the fictional town of Santa Flamingo ("deep in the heart of Mexico"), home of Little Juan, Maria Consuela Tequilla Chiquita, Little Pepita Consuela Tequilla Chiquita, Tanto the friendly tarantula spider, El Gelato the ice-cream seller, Leonardo de Sombrero the pizza delivery boy, Senior Calculo the Bank Manager and the local bully Don Fandango. Whenever he is needed, El Nombre swings into action to solve the townspeople's simple mathematical problems, usually talking in rhyme. His character is a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and wide sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the town folk from injustice and generally swinging around on his bullwhip. However, unlike Zorro, he is often quite inept.